If you are looking for a rough, earth-cracking Rite, you should seek out Boulez (the earlier performance with the ORTF orchestra) or Stravinsky’s own performances on Columbia. This is ideal for The Firebird, but a little too safe, at least for my ears, for The Rite of Spring. The performance, along with The Rite of Spring, stresses transparency and beauty of sound. While I prefer the complete Firebird ballet, the highlight tour captured in the Suite is fine, and was beautiful enough to leave this listener wanting more. Delicate muted violins and harmonics on flutes and strings are just some of the quiet sounds that make for a gentle respite from the heroism and violence. Even when listening at low levels, the recording never loses its grip on Oue’s interpretation. Stravinsky uses a huge orchestra to great effect and the sound is thrilling, but gentle details are also superbly realized. Micro dynamics are also superbly realized. Not just with the pre-requisite bass drum, but in the subtle beauty of sound from all the bass instruments. All bass retrieval is completely in tune with the musical performance. The midrange is rich and full of character, and the bass – wow! The bass is quite unbelievably accurate and dynamic. The treble is crystalline and extends so high that the upper partials of woodwinds, harmonics on strings and the ambient sound of Orchestra Hall is captured perfectly. All the audiophile buttons are pressed during the performances. Recorded in HDCD® 24 bit sound, Johnson and producer Tamblyn Henderson have given us warm, detailed and, above all, spectacular sound. There was a time when a recording on an audiophile label meant wonderful sound coupled with an average performance, however, companies like Reference Recordings have changed the stakes. Professor Keith Johnson, the resident Reference Recordings engineering phenom, has recorded the Minnesota Orchestra to perfection. The wonderful playing is supported by one of the finest sounding orchestral compact discs I have yet to hear. Each principal from the orchestra plays with great character and an undeniably beautiful sound that one associates with only the finest players. All departments of the orchestra are first class with a special mention going to the woodwinds. The orchestra play these fiendishly difficult scores with apparent ease. His control of all three ballets is exemplary and allows Stravinsky’s fantastical ideas to shine at every opportunity. Eiji Oue, a Bernstein protégé and Tanglewood alumnus, makes an auspicious recorded debut. The Minnesota Orchestra, at least on this sojourn, are in excellent young hands. All three pieces could not be more disparate in style, and are far removed from Stravinsky’s seminal works in neo-classical style and his post-modern flirtation with serialism. On this new Reference Recordings CD by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra, we have performances of both the earlier ballets, as well as a performance of the later symphonic poem The Song of the Nightingale. Label/Cat#: Reference Recordings # RR70CD | Country/Year: US 1996 | Source: HDTracksĪlthough The Rite of Spring ballet caused a near riot at its Paris premiere and assured Igor Stravinsky a place in the pantheon of artistic enfants terribles, it was the earlier ballet, The Firebird, that catapulted him to stardom in the classical world. – Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra (1996)įLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88.2 kHz: 1,19 GB | Artwork | Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary Stravinsky – The Song Of The Nightingale, etc.

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